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Update: Even though it isn’t advertised, I am still seeing a $100 Prize Boost as of December 2018 when I calculate my HealthyWage prize (no obligation to get quote). This can effectively double your net winnings!

After reading academic studies which found that financial incentives were effective in helping people lose weight, I joined HealthyWage.com. You tell them how much weight you want to lose, your current body details, how much time you want, and and they’ll calculate what prize to offer you based on how much you want to bet on yourself. Since I eventually lost 50 pounds with the help of HealthyWage and other weight-loss betting sites (and have kept it off since), and I wanted to share my experiences including both positive and negative aspects.

My overall HealthyWage bet was to lose 10% of my body weight over 9 months (22 pounds in my case). My offered bet was to put up $50 per month for 9 months for a potential win of $50. You may like the sound of “winning $500”, but know that a lot of it will be your own money:

Honestly, risking $450 to win $50 didn’t feel like a very good risk/reward ratio, but I wanted the extra motivation. Perhaps my goal was too easy and that was why the payout wasn’t as high. You can put up your own numbers and calculate your own HealthyWage offer. Your payout may be much better than mine. The quote is free, you just need to provide any e-mail address.

If I had been willing to bet that I would lose 50 pounds like I actually ended up doing, I could have earned a lot more money:

Initial weigh-in verification. There are four ways to verify your weight:

Smartphone app. There is a HealthyWage app for iOS and Android. You take a clip using the app and your personal scale.

Video Verification. Upload a video to their website using your personal scale.

I followed their directions carefully, uploaded my video, and both my initial and final videos were accepted with no issues or additional requests.

Every month, I would see a $50 charge on my credit card bill from Healthwage. However, that was about it. There were no encouraging e-mails. No fun tokens or prize giveaways.

Upon initial sign-up, I was given my 2-week window for final weigh-in. HealthyWage’s two-week window is definitely more generous than DietBet’s 48-hour window, with the important difference that I was never sent any reminders by HealthyWage when the time actually came. In comparison, Dietbet sent me multiple reminders beforehand. Now, I had the date marked on my digital calendar with several alerts, so I completed my weigh-in by the second day of the window. It is quite possible that if I waited until closer to the final deadline, I would have gotten a reminder. But I wouldn’t rely on it. Remember, if you forget, they keep your money!

I also did a DietBet at the same time, which is similar but different in that it collects participants into groups and then takes a cut from the pooled bets. See my separate DietBet Review.

Extra final verification hoops. Upon final weight verification, you’ll have to submit the verification video again (see above). But that’s not all. I also had to locate and upload a “before photo” and an “after photo”, which could be any photo from “around the time” of the start and end of the challenge. I also had to upload a scan of my driver’s license. Here’s a screenshot of their page asking for additional information.

Finally, I successfully referred a few people to Healthwage and received extra money added my “pot”. This referral program is nice feature to get some social support, but remember that you get the referral money only if you win your own bet.

Final payout options. There are two options to receive your winnings. A mailed check takes 3-4 weeks to process, with no fee. The other “fast” option is PayPal, which charges a 3% fee. I picked the PayPal option because I didn’t want to wait around for a check. However, they later clarified that it would still take 3-5 business days for Paypal transfer. The 3% fee is actually taken out by PayPal, so HealthyWage actually sends the full amount (they just choose not to subsidize the fee). In retrospect, maybe I should have just waited for the check. Here’s a screenshot:

Bottom line. I committed to a Healthywage bet to lose 10% of my initial weight over 9 months. I lost the weight, completed my verifications without hassle, won the bet, and was paid my winnings. Although I found the process a bit impersonal, they are a legit company. Calculate your own HealthyWage offer here. No obligation to get a quote. However, the fact that HealthyWage motivated me to finally lose over 50 pounds was worth more to me than the cash winnings.

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Comments

Finding motivation to lose weight can be very challenging. This motivation can be even more difficult during holidays, family dinners or a night out on the town with friends or coworkers. Now imagine having a financial motivator to lose weight! Yes, I thought it sounded too good to be true as well until I looked into Healthy Wage from the link on my employers intranet page. There are all kinds of challenges you can join simultaneously to earn money while you lose weight. I decided to do as many as possible. I gathered a team of five and each of us entered the team challenge for $70 to be entered in to win a grand prize of $10,000. I also decided to pay an additional $75/month to join an individual challenge for six months for a chance to double my money. I would join step challenges as well to help me incorporate walking into my weight loss routine. My team members still struggled with the team challenge and we didn’t win the $10,000 but I did win the individual challenge and lost seven additional pounds past the forty I had originally entered the challenge for! My prize was $1,050 which I spent on a mini vacation to show off my new six pack abs! 🙂 I also kept the weight off and got my $70 back from the team challenge. To read more about my daily meal plans and to see before and after photos of me in the same outfit, please visit the Healthy Wage site. I am success story #82 and my name is Kristen Ford. If you have trouble finding it, feel free to send me a message or reply to this one and I will send you the link.

Thank you Healthy Wage for helping me surpass my goal and for paying me to do it!:)

I have done HeathlyWage. I found the financial incentive worked for me. Really the ability to make a little extra money while at the same time working towards small and large weight loss goals is a no brainer. I found the money easy to handle now with their HW Point system. I found that eventually I was able to participate in the challenges using the money I had earned from previous challenges. This is not a “get rich quick scheme” but it is a way to earn a monetary bonus for yourself while on your weight loss journey.

Hi, I filled out the information and got to the last page. I stopped before I clicked on the part that says “Show your prize”. At which point am I officially committed to the program? Can I see my prize amount (which I assume is the balance after my initial monthly payments are subtracted) before committing to the program?

It’s been a while since I did this so I can’t say for sure, but I recall being able to see the prize before committing to the program. It should be before they ask you for credit card information.

EDIT … This comes from Michael Halloran who works with HealthyWage

**Jonathan is correct. After you click on on “Show your prize,” you’ll see one or more prize options for you to select from. You will also see the prize breakdown, including your ROI, on that screen. You are not committed until you enter your payment info.

I bet $100 per month for 6 months that I could lose 50 lbs. (about 22% of my body weight). I found the verified weigh-ins to be very easy using the HealthyWage app. My payout, including the $600 I invested, was $1933. Being a very competitive person, I was inspired to win my bet. I would recommend HealthyWage to anyone interested in an extra incentive to lose weight.

I tried healthywage, and my husband and I did research on a few different online weight loss bet programs. We saw a video on healthywage that made it to good morning America! We thought it looked legit, and there seemed to be no bad word of mouth on their program. I signed up and bet $100/month for 7 months, that I’d lose 65lbs. I did it!! I posted my results on feb 27, and they reviewed it all… and BAM! I got all my money back plus the $1600 earned (it was a little more, but I’m from Canada, so the exchange threw me off!)
! I didn’t believe it until the money was actually in my hands!! It was the best thing! They totally came through! I bet on myself, and it was the best incentive! Healthywage was awesome!!

I am so glad I found HealthyWage. It was a great motivation to stick to my goal. I bet $50/month for 7 months to lose 50 pounds. I won and my profit was $1000. It was so easy. Just make sure your thoroughly read and understand the rules and FAQs before you sign up. The only people that complain are those that lose because the didn’t understand what they were signing up for.

You just never know if this stuff is real. I did my first Healthy Wage calculator in November of 2016, but I didn’t sign up right away. I lurked and read reviews. This was too good to be true right? I have always been a competitive person, and motivated by money, so I finally took the step and signed up when I got an email from Healthy Wage that they would tack on an additional $100 when I reached my goal if I would sign up. I signed on 9/21/2017 for $80 a month. In 6 months time I am down over 40lbs (my wager was 40lbs in 6 months) and I weighed out on 3/12/18. In addition to weighing in (unverified) weekly so HW could track my progress, I utilized their message board and an unofficial FB page for peer support. I am healthier and received a check for $1300.00 to boot! It’s very real, and I am so happy I followed through and used money as the motivating factor to win while losing weight!

I personally love Healthy Wage! I did succeed with them. I paid in $800, and won $2629. I did indeed received my winnings!! But the best thing, I lost 70 lbs! I not only won the money, I won health wise! I feel so much different now! I can do things I could not do before. I have more energy! I have more self pride! I am using my winnings to go on a business trip to help me grow my business, so that will be a big win as well. Just an all around great experience!

I finished my HealthyWage challenge last month and won! I bet $100 a month to lose 50 pounds in six months. I have lost a total of 66 pounds total so far. I first heard about HealthyWage through my employer and did not sign up right away. It was about a month later that I decided to invest in myself and my health. I weighed in 5 days before my challenge was complete and was verified shortly after that. I requested my payout of $1900 and have received my check. I’m so happy that I did it and feel amazing. Winning money was the “icing on the cake”. I recommend HealthyWage to anyone wanting to get healthy and get paid while you’re at it. The app was really easy to use and I like the chat platform to communicate with other HealthyWagers.

HealthyWage is an awesome opportunity to make money while you lose weight. The idea of losing my money that I put in or the idea of winning a big chunk of money definitely helped with discipline to lose the weight and stick with it. The rules are straightforward. You lose the weight, you win! I bet $100/month for 6 months to lose 50#. I lost 53 1/2#! And won $1938!

Hi, Nate:) I did my final weigh out the 1st day of my 15 day window. It was verified that evening at about 7 p.m. it fell on a Wednesday, and I had read that a lot of people got the confirmation on a Wednesday. I received my check in the mail yesterday, June 26th. It costs about $7 to get paid by check, but you can choose to get paid through paypal also. I’m not sure how much it charges for that, but I think you might have access to the money sooner?

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Healthy Wage! I bet $600 ($50/month) over a year to lose 75 lbs which was 33% of my starting body weight. I will say I paid all of my money up front so I felt like I was “all in” from the beginning. At the start, I was 5’10” weighing 226 lbs and when I was done, I did a final weigh in at 151 with a loss of 75.5 lbs. The phone app was extremely helpful for posting unverified weight loss updates to see if I was on track or not — I wasn’t for a good portion of the challenge – and the verification process was unbelievably easy. Everyone I have been in contact with from Customer Service to Marketing has been great and receiving the check and having my winnings in hand – $2118 – was AWESOME! I can say the check has cleared the bank so it is REAL. I will be an advocate of theirs for the rest of my life and will continue to recommend them to anyone who is truly committed to wanting to change their lives and lose the weight. I am hoping for a challenge for weight loss maintenance as the program is so easy to work with and I want their help in keeping me on track. If there are any doubters about how it works, email me — I am willing to help and have blogged about my experience and the steps I took to lose my weight.

I always respond better when I have “big brother” and then you add some money on top. I made a bet (paid $500) and I won $1332 and lost 65lbs. What I like is I set all the terms and amounts. I picked how much I wanted to lose. I picked how long I thought it would take. It was up to me how I was gonna lose it. I weighted in when I wanted to. So where was big brother….that $50 that came out of my bank account every month! That was my reminder that at the end of all of it was a reward. I didn’t have someone breathing down my neck, but I would answer at the end.

The processes was really easy. Collecting the winnings was easy.
I would recommend HealthyWage to anyone.

I did HealthyWage myself and would highly recommend it if you are motivated by money. I looked at it as an investment in my health and it was the best return I have ever gotten on an investment. It helped that I had a lot of weight to lose – over 115#. I spent a lot of time calculating my bet to ensure the highest return. I ended up going with $130 per month for 15 months. Just under $2000 turned into $6237 over those 15 months!! The process was simple to weigh-in, weigh-out and request my check. I had trouble believing it was true until I actually had the check and took it to the bank. I highly recommend it if you are ready to commit to your health. Their are few weight loss programs that leave you with positive results AND money in your pocket!

Same as a casino, the house always wins. This is more like a for-profit sociology business. I’m surprised no one has pointed this out. The “losers” pay off the winners, company expenses and profit! The notable exception is the player can control the outcome instead of lady luck. The owners / founders must be well versed in human nature.

Your description sounds like any bank or credit card company to me. The key is that you control your behavior, which is not a small thing. Banks offer free checking, billpay, ATMs built all over the place, interest, and other features which are paid for essentially by overdraft fees. Credit cards offer cash back rewards, float, extended warranties, and chargeback protection which are essentially paid by those carrying balances and paying interest.

I definitely agree, absolutely, Maybe it goes without saying but they aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts to see you get healthy, if fact, they need the opposite to happen, Someone has crunched the numbers, thrown in some psychological behavior forecasting and determined a profitable, predictable run rate. There is no limit on what financially motivated humans will bet on!

I’m surprised that there isn’t a waiting period like a 6 month follow-up in order to collect the money (or half of it perhaps) as many weight losers put it back on.

It’s true, they are not a charity. If I were to take the pro side, I would say they offer a service and they are being compensated. If I was to take the con, then I’d say they are profiting off the hopes and dreams of dieters. In reality, it’s both. But I lost 50 pounds using them as a source of motivation, so I’m biased. 🙂

Awesome! This is the most informative review I have read about HealthyWage, including what has been discussed in the comments. Thank you for writing this post and thank you to those who have posted comments regarding their own experience, taxes, and questions. Very helpful

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